Update: I was unfortunately not aware of Shamus Young's severe criticism of Fallout 3 available here to link in the original piece and I regret that. It dovetails rather nicely with what I've written and it's much better executed than my piece. I strongly recommend anyone...

So, you like to watch Law and Order, but wish it had a gritter, 1920's edge? Has youe dream always been to be a gumshoe wandering around the city? (Not going to lie, I have always wanted that job...) Hotel Dusk: Room 215 is a new game from Nintendo that shows how the DS is turning into more than just a simple handheld gaming machine and more into something that can tell a story, and a good one at that.

Hotel Dusk is basically a text game with some 3-d puzzles. The reason I use this example is because the same kind of people who like those old text-based games are going to like Hotel Dusk. The controls are easy to master, but sometimes you feel like your playing this thing on a Palm Pilot due to the amount of time you spend playing with the stylus. Not that is a bad thing, the game uses it well.

As for graphics, the game really sucks you in with the style of art. It has a lot of grit in the images, and it really does the story justice. As for the story, well....its a little strange. The actual plot feels like a Japanese take on American movies, and while that might not make any sense now, once you pick the game up and start to play, you'll get what I mean.

Overall, its a solid game, but don't pick it up expecting to be done with it in an afternoon or pick it up for a light session. This is a DS game that demands patience and time due to the level of difficulty for the puzzles. However, if you like playing as a lawyer on the DS, your going to love Hotel Dusk.